wHoA these exist? I’m surprised too, from the LACK OF BLOGGING THAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR. (towards the end)

So I came out online!! FACE, SEXUALITY, ORIENTATION. All of it. Obviously, that took some guts for me, and I just had to DO IT but it’s so amazing to have a little corner of the internet where I can just be out about my sexuality and orientation and not have to worry and just be chill and express my super angsty thoughts in a comical fashion. SEE MY COMING-OUT SERIESHERE.

I wrote more discussions posts!! This is something that I REALLY wanted to happen this year. I feel so much more confident approaching a discussion now, too. This time last year I would have talked myself out of a discussion post 1000 times over and would have panicked and worried over every itty bitty part of it. SO THAT’S MKING ME FEEL SUPER CHUFFED.

I just think my posts were more varied?? I’m happy that I did less review followed by review followed by review, and more whatever this whatever that and it just worked way better. I just loved blogging so much at the start of this year, (cough before exams and before college) and it was just such a chill, free thing.

I JUST LOVED WRITING THE POSTS THAT I WROTE THIS YEAR!! I can genuinely say that I loved writing every post (sans the really angsty ones) that I wrote, every discussion that I started, ALL OF IT.

worst blogging moments of 2018

Obviously, during exams and now that college has started I’ve been blogging less and less and losing the momentum that I had at the start of the year. I think that’s just me learning to balance A LOT more work and HOPEFULLY, in 2019 I WILL just… sort out my life (lol don’t we all hope)

I just didn’t feel THAT ‘bookish’ this year? I just felt less “booky” and I don’t even know why. Maybe it’s the lack of reviews because literally, all I talk about on here is books.

OKAY MASSIVE FAILURE THIS YEAR: communicating with other bloggers!! I’ve been super bad at replying to comments and with college starting and generally blogging less, I’ve been reading fewer posts from people too WHICH IS SO BAD AND SADDENS ME. I love love LOVE reading people’s posts. This is definitely a goal for next year!!

Gonna end this here before it gets too negative!!

2019 blogging goals

talk to more people online!! communicate!! maybe set up a group chat with loads of bloggers?

COLLABS!!! MORE COLLABS!!

REPLY TO COMMENTS!!

just keep going with posts!! I know that realistically I won’t be able to fling myself into blogging the moment that 2019 starts, but I’m hoping to be able to smash out a few posts a month.

Get a little bit more organised!!!!!! PLAN POSTS??? maybe??? (look at me being all.. productive..ew

top life moments of 2018

Finishing exams!!!! that was an end to such a stressful time and THANK THE LORD IT’S OVER.

Collecting my exam certificates and prizes at graduation!! This moment was so satisfying and I was so happy to move on from high school and have the chance to see all my teachers again and thank them. I don’t think that there are really words that sum up how satisfying graduating is.

The Summer Holidays:

– Pride!!: this was AMAZING. I just. speechless. all the feelings

– Nice, France: THIS WAS GORGEOUS. I used to live there when I was younger so it was so nice to go back because we really don’t go back often!! We saw loads of our friends and it was just SO NICE.

– Cornwall: this was SO RELAXING. It was the perfect trip to go on after my exams, seeing my dad and just having a chill routine for a bit was THE NICEST THING.

Starting college. this was great, I was so ready to go to a new place, and meet new people. I was so excited to start all my new courses (which are going well) and I JUST LIKE IT. IT’S STRESS THOUGH.

worst life moments of 2018

just not being that organised until college started??? genuinely made things a little bit tricky!!

THE STRESS: I was so so stressed about my exams and it definitely affected me a lot more than I thought that it was going to. And now college benchmarks have started properly I know what to expect, and I was thoroughly stressed the first time around so now I know how to prepare for the next ones!

There weren’t LOADS of bad moments in 2018 if I’m honest!! nothing that I can remember anyway!

2019 life goals

stay organised!! how this is going to be done –> BULLET JOURNAL!! that’s right lads… I’ve made the jump and finally caved into my compulsions to start a bullet journal. I’VE WANTED TO FOR YEARS.

Stick to the bullet journal!!!

Stay positive. I think that being more organised will help as things won’t feel as overwhelming/manic if I take a teeny bit of control over my life and try and get things together.

reading over 2018

you can see more about this here about my overall top ten 2018 reads and where I vaguely talk about my YEAR. LONG. READING. SLUMP. Just constantly falling in and out of slumps. It’s a miracle that I finished ONE book, to be honest.

Obviously, I’m going to take a moment to complain about that here too. sjgbkesjbgjksbgjksdbgjkrdlshbfkdjnxsiowqeifonwfip!!

But, the books I did read, I ended up rereading (eg. foxhole court, carry on) and I did so multiple times!! I LOVED IT!! Do not underestimate the power of the reread.

TOP THREE READS:

Dear Martin —This was my first read of the year and BOY OH BOY, this tore out my heart. I think that I read it in one sitting and I remember just wanting to read it over and over again. This, like THUG, is such a poignant novel and I SUPER DUPER recommend it to everyone.

Autoboyography —WHAT A READ. I sobbed like a baby throughout this book, and I seriously cannot even describe how MUCH this book means to me. You can see my review here, where I go into MASSES of detail about the importance of this book.

Carry On —WHAT ANOTHER AMAZING GAY BOOK. Filled with heartwarming wit and British humour, cherry scones, magic and gay. Could anything be more perfect? This is the absolute epitome of disaster Gay^tm and I LOVE IT.

reading goals for 2019

read 35 books. I know it’s not LOADS per se, but I just want a really chill year, where I don’t have to worry about how much I’m reading. This averages 2.916 books per month which isn’t that bad!!

don’t worry about rereads!! I read loads of rereads last year and I LOVED IT! They’re fun!! and when you’re stressed I find it so much easier to reread because I don’t really have to pay that much attention??? makes sense?? REREAD MORE THIS YEAR!

don’t worry about keeping up with new releases!! we all know, theoretically, that we cannot POSSIBLY keep up with ALL the new releases, YET, INSANELY, MY BRAIN THINKS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT? what is wrong with it and why doesn’t it have any chill? I question my sanity.

CONTINUE TO READ MORE AND MORE DIVERSELY. I’ve been reading a lot more LGBTQIA+ books and it’s so refreshing and I really hope to keep on reading more and more books with different religions etc because they have such important messages about marginalised groups in society that need to be talked about *ends here before this turns into a rant*

how was your reading in 2018? what are your reading goals for 2019? Let me know!

OKAY BUT YOU USED TO LIVE IN FRANCE AND NO ONE TOLD ME AHHHHHHHHHHH.
Sorry. Had to scream about that.
I’m so happy of everything you’ve accomplished in the past year, you’re doing awesome and yay for surviving your exams and starting college, YOU ARE DOING AWESOME AND I AM SO PROUD AND HAPPY. ❤
I so need to read Autoboyography sometime, it sounds way too good to pass up!! 😀
I hope 2019 is amazing to you so far, take care of yourself! Sending you love ❤

2018 wasn’t a good life year for me which kind of translated to a bad first blogging year, but it was a good reading year because I read a lot of new favorite books! In 2019 I’m hoping to read 50 books, and am also participating in the YARC reading challenge so at least 10 of the books I read will be by Asian authors!

Ahhh I’m sorry to hear that!! That’s great tho (books are the only thing that matter tbh!!). Omg that’s brilliant!!! I’m just hoping to read more diversely on the whole next year, though YARC is SUCH a fantastic idea!!!

Aww, I’m sad 2018 wasn’t the best year for you 😦 And reading slumps suck! I’m not sure I could survive slumping for a whole year… I was slumping the last month or two of 2018 and that was bad enough! But I’m glad you read some great books, and wrote some awesome blog posts that you were happy with. And also coming out is so huge and amazing and I’m so proud of you!!

And ughhhh I’m so bad at interacting with other bloggers, and I really want to work on that in 2019 too! And just like… actually post this year hahaha. (I basically didn’t post last year. It was very sad.)

I’m so freaking proud of you for coming out, which is so so so so scary ahhhhhh!!! Also, totally same about that “not feeling bookish” because I HAVENT FELT BOOKISH IN 2018 AND ITS SAD. I ONLY READ 37 BOOOOOOKS. also, add me to the group chat of bloggers 😇

ahhh congrats on all the amazing things of 2018!! and like surviving exams (GOOD JOB!!) and starting college and travelling and *flails* It sounds like you were very busy too. Also I agree that Autoboyography is a gift to this world 😭💛I reread it this year and basically bawled. ajfdsklad. I also love Dear Martin and Carry On! SO MANY GOOD BOOKS IN THIS WORLD YES.

I hope you’re having a good start to 2019! (One of my goals for this year is also to get back into blogging and commenting and writing consistent posts haha. *eats cake to fortify self*)

I HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY READ IT. MY LIFE HAS CHANGED FOR THE ABSOLUTE BETTER. ahh I mean like Tanner and Seb are just so incredible and the cover is so gorgeous and alllll of Tanners ‘accidental’ leavings in of S’s name (ok so they probs were but like HE WASNT THAT SAD.) xx

This is a great post Lu, and I don’t think it’s too late to post a 2018 recap either. We’re still in the first half of January after all. 🙂
It seems like you had a mixed year, but hopefully the good outweighed the bad. I bet you’re glad your exams are over, and it must have all been worth it when you were picking up those certificates. Also your top books of the year are amazing; granted I’ve only read Autoboyography and Carry On myself but I’ve heard brilliant things about Dear Martin and Carry On is one of my all-time favourite books ever!
Good luck with your goals for 2019, and I hope you have a brilliant year; reading, blogging and life wise. 🙂 ❤

your posts are genuinely so fun and fully of energy, i’m so excited to see what comes on the blog in 2019 and I HOPE TO TALK TO YOU MORE I’m SORRY i suck at existing and internet things. also i’m so proud of you for being more open! I CAN’T BELIEVE WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH A PICTURE OF THE QUEEN’S FACE. we do not deserve this amount of beauty in the world lu. also hard same on don’t try and worry about new releases because no matter how much i say i won’t…I ALWAYS GET ANXIOUS THINKING ABOUT ALL THE GOOD BOOKS I HAVEN’T READ!!!